Campaign Calls For Office-To-Resi Halt Before 'Slums' Built

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has launched a campaign to stop developers converting offices into housing developments. The TCPA is calling on the government to reverse the policy of allowing office-to-resi conversions under permitted development rights, stating it leads to homes “in the wrong place and built to very low standards”. The Room to Breathe campaign will call on the government to introduce minimum housing standards across the whole of the UK as well as bring together individuals and organisations to oppose the permitted development rules. Read more on the News Locker website.

http://www.newslocker.com/en-uk/profession/construction/campaign-calls-for-office-to-resi-halt-before-slums-built/view/

Former Housing Minister Finds Current Planning System Not Fit For Purpose

Existing planning rules in England should be scrapped as it is no longer able to produce the kind of homes that people need in terms of affordability, health and well-being, according to a new hard hitting report. Former housing minister Nick Raynsford, who chaired the review into planning by the Town and Country Planning Association, says that decades of tinkering to try to make the system more viable and effective have not worked. Launching the report in London, Raynsford described the current system as being ‘built on the back of assertion rather than evidence’ and the result is poor outcomes. He called for a radical, root and branch reform of planning at a national level. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/former-housing-minister-finds-current-planning-system-not-fit-purpose/

Planning Deregulation Reduces The Ability Of Councils To Secure Affordable Homes

A lack of investment in genuine affordable housing alongside deregulation of planning is reducing the ability of councils to secure homes, a report released by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) says. The research undertaken by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) reveals 98% of councils now identify their need for affordable housing as either severe or moderate. Setting out 10 recommendations, the report, ‘Delivering affordable homes in a changing world: Ensuring councils can meet local housing need’, has been released to coincide with the closing date of the government’s consultation on the draft revised National Planning Policy Framework. Read more on 24housing.

http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/planning-deregulation-reduces-the-ability-of-councils-to-secure-affordable-homes/

County Councils To Examine Ways To Get Involved In Housing Market

A project examining new ways in which county councils provide housing has been announced. County councils do not typically provide or build new housing, a function that is normally reserved for district level authorities. Nonetheless, in recent months some counties have begun taking up strategic development functions, with Surrey County Council establishing a joint venture with Places for People in December. The joint project between the County Councils Network (CCN) and the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) will explore what CCN member authorities are achieving with current powers. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JJ3I6fwjgDwJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/county-councils-to-examine-ways-to-get-involved-in-housing-market-55764+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Whitehall Must Reform ‘Viability Tests’, Campaigners Say

The Government must amend the definition of ‘affordable housing’ and change its approach to viability testing in its updated planning framework, campaigners say. Two organisations have called on Whitehall to ‘clarify and strengthen’ its commitment to delivering affordable housing by amending the definition and reforming the viability test. The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) have made the call ahead of the publication next week of the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). New research from the TCPA and APSE found 60% of councils said the viability test had ‘hindered’ their ability to secure affordable housing in their local areas. Read more on the Local Gov website.

https://www.localgov.co.uk/Whitehall-must-reform-viability-tests-campaigners-say/44833

NPPF Viability Test Hinders Affordable Homes Provision

72 per cent of councils believe the viability test in the National Planning Policy Framework hinders their ability to provide social and affordable housing. Only 11 per cent of those surveyed for a report on housing need published by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) and the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) considered that the test would provide the numbers of homes needed. The survey of council leaders, chief executives, heads of planning, heads of housing and heads of finance said 96 per cent of councils describe their need for affordable housing as “severe” or “moderate”. Only seven per cent thought that the government’s starter homes initiative would help address affordable housing. Read more on the APSE website.

Councils Do Not Think That Starter Homes Will Address Affordable Housing Need

Local councils, of all political parties, have agreed that the Government’s Starter Homes policy will hinder rather than help to tackle the growing need for genuinely affordable housing in England.

·         almost 80% of local councils do not think that Starter Homes should be classified as affordable housing and only 7% of councils think they will address the need for affordable housing in their local authority areas

·         Over two thirds anticipate that they will be building less social and affordable housing as a result of the Government’s plans to reduce social rents by 1% a year for the next four years

·         96% of councils described their need for affordable homes as severe or moderate

·         Nine out of 10 councils are concerned that the extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants will mean that there will be less socially-rented homes available

Read more on the Town & Country Planning website.

We Are Only Building Half The Homes We Need

New figures show that young people across the country are struggling more than ever to live independently because of the cost of housing.

·         The latest household projections suggest that we need over 220,000 additional homes in England each year until 2031 if the projected growth in households is to be accommodated. 

·         Currently we are building only 54% of that number - putting pressure on prices and rents.

·         The housing crisis is worse in London and the wider south east where 55% of the homes required need to be located.

·         Even if the homes required are actually built the latest government household projections suggest that couples aged between 25 and 34 will be less able to live in their own home in 2031 than their counterparts in 2011.

Read more on the TCPA website.

Former Housing Minister Sets Out New Housing Vision

In a new paper, Nick Raynsford MP - who was Labour's minister for housing between 1999 and 2001 - has set out the challenges he believes the housing industry is facing.  Raynsford believes that the coalition’s response to the housing crisis has centred around demand side solutions like the Help to Buy scheme, incentives and planning reform - efforts that have not led to the necessary changes for a more functional housebuilding model.

Download a copy of the report - 'The challenge of the housing crisis' - from the TCPA website.

Group Formed To Guide Councils on Planning

Housing and planning bodies have joined forces to create a new group designed to give local authorities clearer guidance on planning issues. The housing charity Shelter has linked with the Town and Country Planning Association, Home Builders Federation and many others to deliver the Local Housing Requirements Assessment Working Group after research showed councils need more guidance. Shelter found that 80 per cent of local authorities questioned in a survey agree that more guidance is needed to help them accurately estimate local housing requirements. The research, carried out by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, indicated that without updating existing guidance there will not be the consistent approach needed across local authority areas to meet the new ‘bottom up’ approach, as set out in as the Localism Bill. Download a copy of the report from the Shelter website.

Report Highlights Desperate Housing Needs

A new report by leading housing and planning charity the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), shows that there remains a serious housing shortage facing England. New and novel household projections for England with a 2008 base, by Alan Holman with Christine Whitehead, is the first analysis of the 2008 based Communities and Local Government Department household figures. These figures used a new methodology to assess household formation and reveal the different types of households that are emerging, the biggest innovation being that household types are now broken down by number of children. The analysis projects 234,000 additional households forming per year on top of the backlog of unmet housing needs.Download a copy from the TCPA website.

Housing and Planning Reforms Could Lead To Greater Social Inequality

The first report to consider the Government’s housing and planning reforms together has been published by leading planning think-tank, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The report, a ‘Policy analysis of housing and planning reform’, seeks to help the Government align its policy priorities for increasing housing provision, re-balancing the economy and increasing growth within the overall goal of achieving sustainable development. In doing so it raises two major potential social consequences from the reforms as currently set out. Firstly, the report concludes that the long-terms patterns of spatial inequalities in England are likely to be reinforced by a combination of the end of regional planning and policy and an incentive scheme for housing which rewards high-market-demand areas. This may have long-term implications for the distribution of England’s population. Secondly, there will be shorter-term impacts on a significant number of low-income households which may intensify social segregation. Download the report from the TCPA website.